Well-being explained for kids by experts
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mini-parenting Master Class. by UNICEF
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
TIPS from UNICEF'S experts (United Nations International Children's Fund)
- Child development. From pregnancy to 2 years old. Baby & toddlers tips from experts
- How to manage your child’s separation anxiety. What you need to know about supporting your little one
- How to talk to your child about school anxiety. Is your child having a hard time being back in the classroom?
- Talking to your kids about racism. How to start the important conversation and keep it going
- How to support your child during conflict and crisis situations. Advice for navigating the most difficult times
- How to talk to your children about the death of a loved one. Helping your children cope with loss, grief and painful feelings
- Bullying: What is it and how to stop it. How to prevent and deal with bullying
- How to help your teenager manage a meltdown. Be your child’s partner in navigating difficult or overwhelming feelings
- 11 tips for communicating with your teen. How to approach conversations with empathy and understanding
- Caring for children with disabilities: Mini Parenting Master Class
- Food and nutrition. Learn how to set your child on a path to healthy habits for life
- How to raise a healthy eater. 6 ways to set your child on the path to a lifetime of positive habits
- Positive Parenting Tips - National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
Emotional well-being of children and adolescents
Emotional well-being during childhood and adolescence is particularly crucial for several reasons. Children who are in a good state of emotional well-being have higher odds of growing into adults who are happy, confident, and enjoy healthy lifestyles, consequently contributing towards a better society and improving its overall well-being (Morgan et al. 2007; OECD 2015b). Furthermore, the development of social and emotional skills and state of well-being is rather dynamic in nature where "skills-begets-skills" (OECD 2015b).
The distinction between emotional health and mental health:
Signs that kids experience difficulties with their emotional well-being:
The distinction between emotional health and mental health:
- Emotional health is the ability to cope with and manage emotions. It's also the ability to have positive relationships.
- Mental health is the ability to think clearly and make good decisions. It's also the ability to cope with stress and manage emotions.
- be there to listen
- regularly ask them about how they feel
- stay involved in their life and show an interest in what they find important
- support them through difficulties and help them work through it
- encourage their interests
- build positive routines
- take what they say seriously
Signs that kids experience difficulties with their emotional well-being:
- ongoing sleeping difficulties
- changes in behavior that is significant
- withdrawing from social situations
- self-harm
- a lack of interest in activities they usually enjoy
Source: Emotional well-being of children and adolescents: Recent trends and relevant factors, OECD Education Working Paper No. 169, 2018, By Anna Choi
Mental health in childhood
Mental health in childhood means reaching developmental and emotional milestones, and learning healthy social skills and how to cope when there are problems (Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).
Mental health is the way children think and feel about themselves and the world around them. Therefore, it affects how children cope with life’s challenges and stresses.
Good mental health is an important part of healthy child development. It helps children build positive social, emotional, behaviour, thinking and communication skills. It also lays the foundation for better mental health and wellbeing later in life.
Mental health: Common conditions explained by UNICEF's experts: anxiety, stress, toxic stress, depression, self - harm, panic- attacks
How to support children's mental health, by age - tips from UNICEF's experts: 4 things you can do to support your teen’s mental health. Show your teenager love and care, while looking after yourself.
Sources: Resources and further readings:
Mental health is the way children think and feel about themselves and the world around them. Therefore, it affects how children cope with life’s challenges and stresses.
Good mental health is an important part of healthy child development. It helps children build positive social, emotional, behaviour, thinking and communication skills. It also lays the foundation for better mental health and wellbeing later in life.
Mental health: Common conditions explained by UNICEF's experts: anxiety, stress, toxic stress, depression, self - harm, panic- attacks
How to support children's mental health, by age - tips from UNICEF's experts: 4 things you can do to support your teen’s mental health. Show your teenager love and care, while looking after yourself.
Sources: Resources and further readings:
- WHO - Helping Adolescents Thrive Toolkit
- WHO -Magnificent Mei and Friends: Comic 1 - social and emotional learning among adolescents.
- by topic - here
- WHO - Adolescent mental health
- OECD - Changing the Odds for Vulnerable Children
Developing Healthy Habits
Happiness is a state of mind or a mood. Pre-teens and teenagers are usually happier when they’re satisfied with their lives and relationships, although nobody is happy all the time.
Wellbeing comes from physical, mental and emotional health. It’s also about understanding your emotions, taking part in different activities, having good relationships and social connections, finding meaning in life and feeling that you’re doing well.
Healthy Body image
Healthy eating habits
Healthy lifestyle
Mental and emotional health - How to
Kids need adults' help to develop helpful skills:
2. Self-compassion, which is treating youself kindly when things don’t go well. Self-compassion is being kind to yourself even when things don’t happen the way you expect. It’s being aware of your feelings and treating yourself with the same warmth, care and understanding you’d give to someone you care about. It’s also acknowledging that struggles and challenges are a part of life and that everyone goes through them.
3. Confidence, which is believing that they’ll be successful and make good decisions. It is related to self-esteem, which is feeling good about yourself and feeling that you’re a worthwhile person.
4. Moods regulations. Here are some strategies for turning low moods into better ones:
Wellbeing comes from physical, mental and emotional health. It’s also about understanding your emotions, taking part in different activities, having good relationships and social connections, finding meaning in life and feeling that you’re doing well.
Healthy Body image
- Healthy body image is feeling happy and satisfied with your body.
- Help pre-teens and teenagers develop healthy body image by talking, focusing on the whole person, and being a positive role model.
- If pre-teens and teenagers have unhealthy body image, they might be self-critical, compare themselves with others, and feel unhappy with their appearance.
Healthy eating habits
- Children often feel hungrier and eat more as they begin puberty.
- Encourage healthy eating habits by being a good food role model, creating a healthy food environment, and sending healthy food messages.
- Unhealthy eating habits include eating too much, not eating enough or eating a poorly planned restricted diet.
Healthy lifestyle
- Encourage good sleep habits: pre-teens need 9-11 hours of sleep, and teenagers need 8-10 hours of sleep a night. It’s best for your child to avoid digital technology use in the hour before bedtime.
- At least 60 minutes of physical activity each day.
- Healthy food choices to fuel their growth and development.
- Healthy balance between study, work and play. This might mean looking at how many nights your child is out doing things, how much down time your child has, how much your child can contribute to family life through chores, how many family meals you have together and so on.
Mental and emotional health - How to
Kids need adults' help to develop helpful skills:
- Resilience, which is being able to cope with difficult situations and ‘bounce back’ when things go wrong, to adapt to difficult circumstances that you can’t change and keep on thriving. In fact, when you’re resilient, you can often learn from difficult situations.How to build resilience:
- develop self-respect and self-compassion
- get support from friends and family, develop your social skills
- positive thinking habits
- skills for getting things done.
- keep things in perspective by focusing on facts and reality: 'On a scale from 1-10, how bad is it really?’
- developing problem-solving strategies - get the power to deal with difficult situations and get through challenging times.
- develop the ability to feel, talk through and calm down after difficult emotions like anxiety, fear and anger. Working through difficult emotions will help the child realise that these feelings don’t last forever.
- develop the skills for getting things done: feeling confident, capable and ready to get things done are big parts of resilience. Important skills in this area are goal-setting, planning, being organised and self-disciplined, being prepared to work hard and being resourceful. Parents can encourage the child to set goals that put their strengths into action, and that help the child to focus on what they’re good at.
2. Self-compassion, which is treating youself kindly when things don’t go well. Self-compassion is being kind to yourself even when things don’t happen the way you expect. It’s being aware of your feelings and treating yourself with the same warmth, care and understanding you’d give to someone you care about. It’s also acknowledging that struggles and challenges are a part of life and that everyone goes through them.
3. Confidence, which is believing that they’ll be successful and make good decisions. It is related to self-esteem, which is feeling good about yourself and feeling that you’re a worthwhile person.
4. Moods regulations. Here are some strategies for turning low moods into better ones:
- Do things you enjoy or that help you relax, like watching something funny on YouTube or reading a good book.
- Spend time with friends or support people.
- Do something kind for someone else – for example, carrying the grocery shopping in from the car.
- Do some physical activity, like playing sport or going for a vigorous walk.
4. A positive focus
Notice and appreciate the good things in their life will also help keep difficult times in perspective, so they don’t become overwhelming. A good habit is taking a few moments each day to focus on what they’re grateful for. It could be a family activity by asking everyone at the dinner table to name one thing they’re grateful for. You can be grateful for all sorts of things, like being together at dinner, the sun shining, farmers getting the rain they need, good health, good friends and so on.
5. Different activities
Trying new things and getting involved in different activities can build confidence and self-worth.
6. Relationships and social connections
Relationships and social connections are vital for kids wellbeing. They need close and supportive family and friends. And good parent-child relationships tend to lead to good friendships.
7. Meaning in life
Meaning in life can come from doing good things for others. Kids could get involved in community activity. This type of ‘giving’ lights up the reward centre in the brain, which makes kids feel good.
Feeling connected to something bigger can also help to give life a sense of purpose. Meaning might come from spirituality, life philosophy, or a commitment to a cause like the environment. People with meaning have less stress and get more out of what they do.
8. Goals and achievement
Goals can give kids a sense of purpose and achievement when the goals are meaningful and attainable and let the children to use their strengths
Notice and appreciate the good things in their life will also help keep difficult times in perspective, so they don’t become overwhelming. A good habit is taking a few moments each day to focus on what they’re grateful for. It could be a family activity by asking everyone at the dinner table to name one thing they’re grateful for. You can be grateful for all sorts of things, like being together at dinner, the sun shining, farmers getting the rain they need, good health, good friends and so on.
5. Different activities
Trying new things and getting involved in different activities can build confidence and self-worth.
6. Relationships and social connections
Relationships and social connections are vital for kids wellbeing. They need close and supportive family and friends. And good parent-child relationships tend to lead to good friendships.
7. Meaning in life
Meaning in life can come from doing good things for others. Kids could get involved in community activity. This type of ‘giving’ lights up the reward centre in the brain, which makes kids feel good.
Feeling connected to something bigger can also help to give life a sense of purpose. Meaning might come from spirituality, life philosophy, or a commitment to a cause like the environment. People with meaning have less stress and get more out of what they do.
8. Goals and achievement
Goals can give kids a sense of purpose and achievement when the goals are meaningful and attainable and let the children to use their strengths
How to Start the Conversation about Mental Health
Many children deal with mental health challenges on their own. Parents may help by providing nurturing, loving environments and asking the simple questions – how are you doing, what’s on our mind?
Here are tips and resources to do just that whatever age your child might be:
Many children deal with mental health challenges on their own. Parents may help by providing nurturing, loving environments and asking the simple questions – how are you doing, what’s on our mind?
Here are tips and resources to do just that whatever age your child might be:
|
|
|
|
